Raiders hold on to slim finals hopes as Roosters title chances take hit

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Sydney Roosters v Canberra Raiders

The bad news started early for the Roosters, when Sam Walker went down with what would later become a suspected torn ACL when he went to try and ground a bouncing ball. They got a penalty in the incident and took a 2-0 lead, but certainly the attention of many Roosters fans was taken away from the game.

Just minutes later, the Raiders took the lead when Elliot Whitehead powered over from close range. Not long after Whitehead contributed to a try again, this time making an offload for Simi Sasagi to cross. Even when Whitehead went to the sin bin for a hip drop that forced Brandon Smith off the field with a knee issue, the Raiders did not crack and took a 10-2 lead to half time.

After weathering the rest of the storm while Whitehead was in the bin, the Raiders pushed their lead to 12 when a poor Luke Keary pass eventually found its way into Xavier Savage, who simply was not going to be caught. That made it 14-2, and it should have been game over.

But when Whitehead used his foot to try and strike the ball out of the hands of Angus Crichton, all hell broke loose. Whitehead went to the sin bin again, and this time the Roosters capitalised with a Daniel Tupou try. But despite dominating possession over the net 10 minutes, the Roosters could not cross the line and again you'd be forgiven for thinking the Raiders were home and hosed.

But a penalty with 100 seconds remaining trimmed the lead to 6 and gave the Roosters a final set to take the game to golden point. They marched downfield before a final play where practically every Rooster touched the ball before Keary kicked to Tupou for his second try of the night. It gave Keary a sideline conversion to win the game, but the kick was unfortunately wide left, giving Canberra the win.

The Raiders have almost no chance of making the finals, but it does exist. They would need the Knights and Dolphins to draw their match, and to beat the Dragons. For the Roosters meanwhile they will almost certainly finish 3rd unless they beat the Rabbitohs and the Panthers are upset by the Titans.